A Colesville man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for the death of his newborn daughter, who was shot and killed with a crossbow in 2023.
Patrick D. Proefriedt, 28, was sentenced on June 27 in Broome County Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in March.
On June 26, 2023, the Broome County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Medical Services responded to a report that a woman and infant had been shot with a crossbow at a home on state Route 41 in the Town of Colesville.
At the scene, officers discovered Proefriedt’s wife and newborn daughter had been shot with a crossbow. The child was pronounced dead at the scene, Proefriedt’s wife was released from the hospital later that day with non-life-threatening injuries.
Proefriedt was arguing with his wife when he fired a crossbow at her and their 3-week-old daughter, Eleanor M. Carey. The crossbow struck the infant in the upper torso, exiting near the armpit before hitting her mother in the chest.
After fleeing the scene, Proefriedt was located and taken into custody within an hour.
Father shot daughter, wife with crossbow, then left the house
Early in the morning on June 26, 2023, Proefriedt and Megan Carey got into an argument. Proefriedt was angry; Eleanor had been crying.
During the sentencing, Broome County District Attorney Paul Battisti recounted Proefriedt’s actions that day. He left the bedroom where Carey and Eleanor were sitting, loaded a crossbow, reentered the room and shot. The arrow went through the infant child’s arm and struck Carey in the chest.
Proefriedt then tore the arrow out and threw towels at Carey, telling her to stop the bleeding. He took Carey’s phone and hid it in another room, put on his shoes, grabbed his car keys and left the home, taking the only vehicle Carey could have used to get help.
During Carey’s 22-minute call to 911, which was played in court June 27, she can be heard comforting her daughter, telling her to “stay with Mommy” and “please don’t die.”
By the end of the call, Carey said Eleanor’s face was pale, she wasn’t moving or looking at her and her breathing had stopped. By the time a patrol car arrived to the residence, Eleanor was dead.
Battisti said once Proefriedt was in custody, he expressed a lack of remorse and accountability, saying it was “Megan’s fault,” and she “dared him” to shoot.
“He wants to blame everyone but himself,” Battisti said.
What led to Eleanor’s death in 2023
During the sentencing proceedings June 27, Carey said she would do “everything she can” to get her daughter justice.
“Everywhere I look, I see you [Eleanor] – a part of you in almost everyone,” she said. “I can’t express how much I miss and love you.”
To Proefriedt, Carey said even if he is “ever capable of remorse,” it could never bring her daughter back.
“Despite everything that has happened, I still believe in love, I still believe in healing, I believe in forgiveness, but he is beyond forgiveness,” she said. “He has no empathy and no humanity.”
While looking at the case with Broome County Deputy District Attorney Lucas Finley, Battisti said what was so troubling was Proefriedt’s lack of remorse or accountability.
“This defendant has lived this violent life, this uncontrollable life, a life where he puts himself before all others way before he met Megan in 2019,” Battisti said.
Battisti outlined a criminal history including disorderly conduct charges, numerous orders of protection violated after Proefriedt met Carey in 2019, and the current state prison sentence he has been serving since September 2023 for first-degree criminal contempt. Battisti said Proefriedt was accused of putting Carey’s head “through a wall.”
A ‘tumultuous childhood,’ struggles exacerbated
“I take full responsibility, I got to do what I got to do,” Proefriedt said in court June 27. “I apologize to my wife, and I apologize to you for the sake of my child.”
Broome County Court Judge Joseph F. Cawley said he read court documents outlining “significant details” about Proefriedt’s life and the circumstances he has had to endure throughout his life.
Cawley said there is “no doubt” Proefriedt has been subjected to “a very difficult and tumultuous childhood,” suffering from physical, verbal and sexual abuse at a young age.
He said Proefriedt struggles with learning and development disabilities as well as various symptoms of mental illness.
Cawley said he believes Proefriedt’s struggles were exacerbated in 2019 when he lost a child shortly after birth because of “health complications.”
But Cawley again recounted the early morning hours of June 26, 2023, and noted Proefriedt did not render any aid or offer any assistance to his three-week-old daughter.
“I hope through some act of God you can find some relief,” Cawley said. “But more so I hope, I pray, Megan can find some solace through God’s grace.”
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: 3-week-old baby shot with crossbow during dispute. Father sentenced in her death
Reporting by Jillian McCarthy, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin / Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
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